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A Hard Fought Case

A Hard Fought Case image
Parent Issue
Day
22
Month
January
Year
1890
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The circuit court was engaged from Tuesday of last week until Monday uiorning in hearing tbe appeal of Electa Knight from the decisión of the probate court on the will of the late Lamira Knight. The case was one of the most hotly contested ones in the history of the court, neither party leaying anythlng undoue to gain thelr cause. Judge Kinne charged the jury Saturduy afternoon and the case went to tbc jury at two o'clock. Belng unable to agree on Saturday, the jury was locked up till 10 o'clock Sunday morning wlien they agrecd in favor of breaking the will, and a sealed verdict was put In to that effect. The history of the case is peculiar. In 1870 Ilufus Kniglit of Scio, died, leaving his farm of 218 acres to hls widow and two unmarrieil daughters, but they werc to pay legaties amounting to $6,000 before their title to the farm was perfect. The girls managed the farm so carefully that the legacles were paid off, and $9,000 besides was cleared up to the time of Mrs. Knlgut's death last spring, this money bcing equally dlylded betwcen the three. After Mrs. Knight's death it was found that she had made a will in 1S72, leaving her entire property, both real and personal, to a ruarrled tlaughter, Mrs. Mary Phelps. Electa Knight, the daughtcr who had manajied the property for years and by whose care the molher had saved her estáte, contested the will, which was admitted to probate, however, bv Judge Babbitt. She then appealed to the circuit court to set aside the wil], claiming that the te3tatrix was incompetent at the time the will was made. Testiniony was produccd on the trial to show that Mrg. Knight had thought the will destroyed, although it liad been in Mrs. Phelps possession all the time wliich elapsed from its elgnlng until Mrs. Knight's death. The case excited considerable interest in the community in which the pirties lived, and the court room wasfilled neariy all the time. The attorneys were Messrs. Wliitin.in and Thompson for the contest, ants, and Messrs. Kaowlton and Iuvrcnce for the clufendiints. The case will probably be csrrled up to the supreme court, Several suits in chancery will spring out of this matter.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier